Former spy eyes greener pastures

Iraq intelligence whistleblower and former spy, Andrew Wilkie, is considering whether to stand as a Greens candidate at the next federal election after quietly joining the party in Sydney recently.

The emergence of Mr Wilkie on the formal political scene would present significant problems for the Federal Government, ensuring a continued focus on the controversy over the pre-Iraq war intelligence before the election next year.

Mr Wilkie said he had realised after leaving the Office of National Assessments in March and going public with his concerns that the best way of maximising his effectiveness as an anti-war activist would be to join a political party.

He said he had waited until now to join a party because he did not want people to think his revelations of the past 10 months had a political purpose.

"I think after the Hutton inquiry in Britain and the inquiries in the US that most sensible people would understand pretty clearly now why I took the position I did," Mr Wilkie said. "It's pretty clear I would not have taken the risks I have and suffered the criticism I have if it was just some crazy political stunt."

He said he saw the Greens as a grassroots democratic party and did not expect to receive special treatment as a new member.

"It is not for anybody like me to simply blow into the party and demand preselection," he said. "I want to make it clear that I haven't decided whether I will seek preselection or not. I could decide to stand as an independent and remain a member of the Greens, or I might decide not to stand at all."

The Greens leader, Bob Brown, last night welcomed Mr Wilkie's decision to join the party and said he would support the former spy if he sought preselection in the same way he would support any candidate.

"Andrew is a courageous man who's been prepared to speak out where many are silent and that's fundamental to a working democracy," Senator Brown said.

"I admire his actions in the run-up to the Iraq war to bring some probity to what we now know was a collection of lies by the Government to justify sending thousands of Australians to war."

Mr Wilkie said he had been impressed by Senator Brown and broadly supported his decision to protest during US President George Bush's address to the Parliament in October.

Mr Wilkie resigned from the Office of National Assessments on March 11 and embarrassed the Government by going public with his concerns as Mr Howard was preparing to deliver a major speech on Iraq to the National Press Club.

As Mr Howard argued his case for war, Mr Wilkie countered that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program was "at best disjointed and contained", its conventional weapons capability was "very weak" and there was no intelligence linking Saddam Hussein with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Mr Wilkie said he first approached the Labor Party about joining.

"At first I thought the ALP was best for me but the more I researched the parties' platforms I realised that it was the Greens that was my natural home," he said.

Mr Wilkie joined the Young Liberals while a cadet at the Duntroon military academy in the late 1980s. He joined the Liberal Party after graduating and being stationed in Brisbane, but let his membership lapse.